‘The impacts of the Cruise Industry on Tourism Destination’ ;Aguirre, Sandra & Brida, Juan Gabriel.
In the introduction it states about how the cruise industry in 2008 was the fastest growing sector in the travel industry and then there was 300 liners cruising and that in the future there were to be another 35 cruise liners introduced also that the Caribbean was the most preferred cruise destination. The authors of this journal have thought about how many cruise ships there are how many there are that are due to be introduced, however, the authors of this journal article could have done more research and discusses which companies are going to be bringing in these cruise liners and when they announce to do so.
The purpose of the journal
The main purpose of the journal article is to explain that their are different factors that can have an impact on destinations, these factors include economic, social, environmental, cultural and political effects, it talks about each one of these and how it has an impact on the environment whether it being good or bad. The reports purpose is also to elaborate on the growth of the cruise industry and how this can have a positive affect on tourism and employment but however, the downside to the growth on the industry and how it can affect smaller cities and ports and locals.
The authors of the article gave of the impression that they wanted people who read the article to think about before booking a cruise to take into consideration the impacts that can be caused by cruise ships.
Impacts on destinations
The article talks about environmental and social effects of the cruise industry, cruise ships can cater for thousands of passengers and also crew and alongside with this brings huge amounts of waste and of course the cruise ship has to get rid of this, and this waste not only has an affect of the air but also the marine environment by getting rid of hazardous waste not in the correct form. There’s no doubt about it that on a cruise ship you can find hundreds of cultures and nationalities which is great for passengers to socialise with people that aren’t from there own country and it gives them a great opportunity to learn new things about other cultures, although there may be a positive to this there is also a negative because there can sometimes be a language barrier either between guests or guests and workers and this can cause misunderstanding.
There is also competition for the use of space when it comes to the port of call, for example fighting for space with cargo ships in port. The article implies that when in a port of call and passengers disembark from the ship it can have an impact on the locals at the particular destination, for example if you have got thousands of guests disembarking in a small country/city then they’ll be taking over, although it may be good for the tourism and bring in money but locals can feel invaded and not feel like they’re at home anymore.
The authors discuss with the cruise industry growing larger cruise ships are going to be introduced and due to this it will cost ports of call more money to keep up with these because they’ll have to make sure that the ports are accommodated for the large ships and that the infrastructure is stable. The authors discuss about the economy of ports of call but they don’t discuss the local economy and how large cruise ships once docked and passengers are off how it can affect the local economy.
Positives and Negatives
The positives for this article are that the authors view the cruise industry in a positive way because they promote it to be the fastest growing sector but also the author weighs out positive and negative impacts of the cruise industry so they have a balanced argument, for example they discuss positive impacts that the cruise industry have on destinations such as having an impact on the destinations economy by tourists that get of the cruise ship spending their money in the destination on shopping, food and the culture.
A negative about the journal article is that even though it focuses on different different impacts on destinations, that each destination could be affected by different impacts but also it doesn’t really specify destinations the authors talk about the Caribbean a fair bit but aren’t specific on what impacts have an affect of destinations, for example they could have spoken about how a big cruise ship with thousands of guests on visit a small country/city such as St Lucia and this could be overwhelming for locals but also overtime the sea beds can become damaged due to the over population of tourists.
Due to this journal being wrote in 2008 a lot may have changed over the course of 11 years. There is a more up to date journal article on the impacts of cruising wrote in 2016, in the first article it states that in 2007 12.6 million worldwide passengers went on a cruise and then in the second article the author states that in 2015 an estimated 22 million passengers, this is evidence to prove that they are still a fast growing sector in the travel industry.
Suggestions for the article
To improve the article the author could have done more research into how the industry is growing but also predictions for the amount of people that would cruise over a certain period of time. Another suggestion for the first article could be that they could make suggestions on how cruise companies can change on how they impact destinations, something similar to this is found in the second article the author discusses about sustainability and sustainable products and services.
Summarising the article
To summarise this article the cruise industry is continuing to grow and along with this there is going to be more waste produced which can have even more of a toll on small destinations and can have an affect on the locals but also buildings that could be old and if a huge cruise ship turns up on a regular basis then this can bring it to slowly deteriorate. The article encourages people to think before going on a cruise ship, not because it can have a negative impact on destinations but people that are intending to go on a cruise might not know of this and it gives them an insight.
Article references
Aguirre, Sandra & Brida, Juan Gabriel. (2008). The Impacts of the Cruise Industry on Tourism Destinations. Available on,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228268563_The_Impacts_of_the_Cruise_Industry_on_Tourism_Destinations/citations
Jones, P., Hillier, D. and Comfort, D. (2016). The Environmental, Social and Economic Impacts of Cruising and Corporate Sustainability Strategies. Athens Journal of Tourism, 3(4), pp.273-286.
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